Professor Taeghwan Hyeon

Professor, School of Chemical and Biological EngineeringSeoul National University

Designing Inorganic Nanomaterials for Medical and Energy Applications

Abstract

For the last 10 years, the Hyeon Group has been focused on medical applications of various uniform-sized nanoparticles. The group has demonstrated that ceria nanoparticles and ceria–zirconia nanoparticles can work as therapeutic antioxidants to treat various diseases, including ischemic stroke, Alzheimer’s disease,sepsis,and Parkinson’s disease.The group developed a click reaction-assisted immune cell targeting (CRAIT) strategy to deliver drug-loaded nanoparticles deep into tumor interiors, reducing tumor burden in an aggressive 4T1 breast cancer model without any systemic toxicity. They report a highly sensitive and selective K+ nanosensor that can quantitatively monitor extracellular K+ concentration changes in the brains of freely moving mice experiencing epileptic seizures.They introduced electromechanical cardioplasty using an epicardial mesh made of electrically conductive and elastic Ag nanowire-rubber composite material to resemble the innate cardiac tissue and confer cardiac conduction system function.

Recently, the group has focused on the architecture engineering of nanomaterials for their applications to lithium ion batteries, fuel cell electrocatalysts, solar cells, and thermoelectrics. Hyeon reports a simple synthetic method of carbon-based hybrid cellular nanosheets loaded with SnO2 nanoparticles and presents a synthesis of highly durable and active electrocatalysts based on ordered fct-PtFe nanoparticles and FeP nanoparticles coated with N-doped carbon shell.He also reports on the design and synthesis of highly active TiO2 photocatalysts incorporated with site-specific single copper atoms (Cu/TiO2) that exhibit a reversible and cooperative photoactivation process, and enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen generation activity.

Bio

Taeghwan Hyeon received his BS (1987) and MS (1989) in Chemistry from Seoul National University (Korea) before obtaining his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1996) and conducting postdoctoral research at the Catalysis Center of Northwestern University. Since joining the faculty of the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering of Seoul National University in 1997, he has focused on the synthesis and applications of uniform-sized nanoparticles and related nanostructured materials, published > 350 papers in prominent international journals, and been named a SNU Distinguished Professor. Since 2012, he has served as Director of the Center for Nanoparticle Research of Institute for Basic Science (IBS). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Materials Research Society (MRS) and has received many awards, including the Korea S&T Award from the Korean President (2016), Hoam Prize (2012, Samsung Hoam Foundation), POSCO-T. J. Park Award (2008), and the IUVSTA Prize for Technology (International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications, 2016). He has served on the editorial boards of ACS Central Science, Advanced Materials, Nano Today, and Small and has served as an Associate Editor of Journal of the American Chemical Society since 2010.

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